Ummm ... a repair disk (CD) isn't going to make a system boot properly when it can't see the system's hard drive(s).
If the system is known to have been running properly and recently, the most likely problem is that the hard drive has died. Shouldn't be a problem if you have full backups, otherwise you'll need to reinstall the operating system(s) after replacing the hard drive. (HD 0 if you have more than one in the system)
Hard drives DO fail & I strongly advise keeping a spare HD (in an external USB case) and cloning your system drive to at regular intervals (at least twice a year). I use and reccomend CloneZilla (free) but there are other tools out there that do the job well. If you run nothing but Windows then Aomei Partition Assistant might suit you better; the free version should be good enough.
another not uncommon cause of this error is when user switch bios between legacy and uefi mode. each installation of OS on HDD can only work on a specific bios mode. when bios mode is switched after OS is installed, no boot device will be detected because boot record is stored completely differently in legacy and uefi.
OP has not yet disclosed which model of optiplex it is. so this is just a speculation.
A specific model number is required for a diagnostic effort. And I agree that the CD will not help if the drive is not detected. But now I am curious. Windows has not been using disk media for some years now so what version are you trying to boot into? And if it is a very old version of Windows then possibly it means the system is quite old and the hard drive has failed.
(From experience, I've been working with the things since an 8 megabyte exchangeable drive was the size of a watercooler. Unless it's dead on arrival "expect" 3-4 years, longer if the thing is rarely or never switched off, but, like light bulbs, they can go at any time. I have a system which is so old it has a millenium bug compliance sticker on it, the disk is still good, but I've also recently had to replace a data centre quality drive within 3 months of use.)
bj11213
77 Posts
1
May 10th, 2021 16:00
Ummm ... a repair disk (CD) isn't going to make a system boot properly when it can't see the system's hard drive(s).
If the system is known to have been running properly and recently, the most likely problem is that the hard drive has died. Shouldn't be a problem if you have full backups, otherwise you'll need to reinstall the operating system(s) after replacing the hard drive. (HD 0 if you have more than one in the system)
Hard drives DO fail & I strongly advise keeping a spare HD (in an external USB case) and cloning your system drive to at regular intervals (at least twice a year). I use and reccomend CloneZilla (free) but there are other tools out there that do the job well. If you run nothing but Windows then Aomei Partition Assistant might suit you better; the free version should be good enough.
redxps630
9 Legend
•
15.5K Posts
1
May 10th, 2021 17:00
another not uncommon cause of this error is when user switch bios between legacy and uefi mode. each installation of OS on HDD can only work on a specific bios mode. when bios mode is switched after OS is installed, no boot device will be detected because boot record is stored completely differently in legacy and uefi.
OP has not yet disclosed which model of optiplex it is. so this is just a speculation.
JOcean
9 Legend
•
12.6K Posts
0
May 10th, 2021 19:00
A specific model number is required for a diagnostic effort. And I agree that the CD will not help if the drive is not detected. But now I am curious. Windows has not been using disk media for some years now so what version are you trying to boot into? And if it is a very old version of Windows then possibly it means the system is quite old and the hard drive has failed.
bj11213
77 Posts
0
May 11th, 2021 01:00
(From experience, I've been working with the things since an 8 megabyte exchangeable drive was the size of a watercooler. Unless it's dead on arrival "expect" 3-4 years, longer if the thing is rarely or never switched off, but, like light bulbs, they can go at any time. I have a system which is so old it has a millenium bug compliance sticker on it, the disk is still good, but I've also recently had to replace a data centre quality drive within 3 months of use.)